Things have been a little quiet around here for the past several days, but I’ve been as busy as a mop-up reliever at Coors Field. Not that you should read anything further into that analogy, because the news is actually quite exciting (for me at least).
Fantasy Baseball Index has contracted me to do their Spring Training coverage, updating subscribers on the moves which have transpired since the magazine went to press in mid-January. I’ll be cranking out five updates over the next six weeks, running through fantasy-related developments on each team, updating depth charts and tweaking playing time and stat projections. The first issue, which is free to those who bought the magazine, comes out tomorrow, March 2. There’s no issue for March 9, but there’s one for every week — called “The Fantasy Index Cheat Sheet Update” — after that up through the first week of April.
It’s a serious workload, and there’s serious money behind it, all of which makes it a hell of a lot of fun. Who knew that fantasy baseball would be the vehicle to fulfill my own fantasy of being a full-time professional baseball writer, even if it’s only for a month or so here and there? Nice work if you can get it, and right now, baby, I’ve got it. If you can’t see my smile, you’re using the wrong browser.
The side benefit is that all of this work is my own spring training for the Prospectus Hit List. I’m building up the stamina to go around the majors once a week, working on my keyboard posture, squinting at stats (well, I do that every day), trying to sweat out all of those cliches and horribly elongated sentences — you know, the ones with lots of em-dashes, and subordinate clauses, and tangents that go on for days. This one sentence back a couple weeks ago was like watching Tony LaRussa make multiple pitching changes — you get the idea. Within my schedule, I’ll find some time to crank out the preseason PHL, which is sure to enrage about half of those who read it (especially White Sox fans, not that I should be offering anyone hints). If I get some cooperation from certain quarters, I might even get to provide a glimpse at how past years’ PHLs would have looked.
And yeah, someday I’ll finish dumping my DIPS spreadsheet onto the website, if I don’t claw my eyes out first, or decide to bury myself in the fantastic pile of baseball books that’s keeping my doorman busy. Seriously, six books in three days, and BP 2006 is on the way too. Aw yeaaaaah!